


In the Cards

by mamodewberry



Series: NLAverse [21]
Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Backstory, Gen, Gosha the Witch, Never Look Away, Short One Shot, Tarot Cards, Viktor's haircut, Wolves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-28
Updated: 2019-08-28
Packaged: 2020-09-28 08:09:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,713
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20422718
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mamodewberry/pseuds/mamodewberry
Summary: ~*~ HAPPY BIRTHDAY, GAB~*~ ILUSFM!!!This is a special collaborated gift with the lovely Quel. We've been conspiring for some time :)c Thank you for illustrating, I'm so happy with the results ;_;You can see the artHEREMinor spoilers for Never Look Away for the Barcelona chapters. It's still kind of vague, but if you prefer for ALL THE SURPRISES, hold off until chapter 33 or so. I'm in charge of Gosha and I don't get to write him much, so I try to find opportunities so I can, which makes Gab happy. Gosha has seen Viktor at his lowest points, so I found it important to write this scene in particular.





	In the Cards

**Author's Note:**

  * For [gabapple](https://archiveofourown.org/users/gabapple/gifts).

> ~*~ HAPPY BIRTHDAY, GAB~*~ ILUSFM!!!
> 
> This is a special collaborated gift with the lovely Quel. We've been conspiring for some time :)c Thank you for illustrating, I'm so happy with the results ;_;
> 
> You can see the art [HERE](https://twitter.com/mamodewberry/status/1166561068879138816?s=19)
> 
> Minor spoilers for Never Look Away for the Barcelona chapters. It's still kind of vague, but if you prefer for ALL THE SURPRISES, hold off until chapter 33 or so. I'm in charge of Gosha and I don't get to write him much, so I try to find opportunities so I can, which makes Gab happy. Gosha has seen Viktor at his lowest points, so I found it important to write this scene in particular.

There was a risk in offering; his pride and any credibility Viktor had towards him. He hadn’t scoffed at him back then, but they had been friends. What were they now? Viktor could potentially not like the results too, but maybe it would be the closest they could get to talking about…  _ everything _ . 

When Yakov asked Georgi to stay with Viktor while he scouted for apartments, Georgi was more than willing, being very worried about his friend and comrade. 

_ “I can’t leave Vitya with his aunt and uncle anymore.” _

_ Georgi nodded, hearing the unsaid ‘It’s not safe for him’ from the desperation in his coach’s voice. “And with Niko in Moscow-” _

_ “They’re not together anymore.” _

_ “Oh.” _

Viktor didn’t give specifics in the three days thus far they’d spent in the hotel together.

That was mostly in part to Viktor not being in his right mind. He couldn’t be left alone. Regrettably Georgi didn’t know how serious that warning was until he made the mistake of leaving to the grocer the first night. When he returned to the apartment, Viktor was nowhere to be found. Panicking, Georgi ran from the hotel to the library, to the cafe he knew he liked, to the bookstore.

Nothing. 

Just when he was about to resort to asking the authorities for help, he found his rinkmate standing at the edge of the forest, getting drenched by the rain. 

_ “Viktor. Vitya, what are you doing out here?” _

_ “Can’t you hear them?” _

_ “... Hear what?” _

_ “The wolves. They are howling…” _

The only sound was the rain rustling the branches and bordering pavement. Was he afraid of wolves? Georgi touched his arm.  _ “Let’s leave them be and get back to the hotel, da?” _

Viktor hadn’t resisted, but he didn’t stop looking behind them until they were inside.

The second day was better. A lot of far off gazes and bouts of confusion and pausing mid-sentence, paranoia of the wolves outside, but at least he didn’t seem interested in leaving the hotel to search for them. Much better.

He told Georgi  that it was time for a change. It was the only explanation that he gave for anything . But he didn’t explain anything about his haircut. His hair now was an improvement from the day he showed up at the rink. It was a suiting and sophisticated look on him. Miss Baranovskaya must have helped with it.

Niko and the haircut were connected and Georgi had his suspicions more or less confirmed with some divine help. 

“What if I did a tarot reading for you?”

Viktor looked up from what he’d called an idea book. Skating was about the only thing that kept him grounded in a conversation. He wouldn’t let Georgi look at it, however. Viktor frowned. “What good will it do, Gosha?”

It was a rink rule to not call one another by diminutives. It hadn’t stopped them from slipping during the summer, however. When Viktor called him Gosha the first day together, it startled him. He’d missed it. If Viktor’s fragile state of mind was needed to call him that, he wouldn’t stop him. 

“Cheering up? Entertainment? At the very least you can be more tarot practice for me.”

Georgi got up from the hotel sofa and crossed the room to his luggage to wheel it over to where the pair sat. He unfolded a cloth and laid it over the coffee table, smoothing the creases in the sketchy stars and moon pattern. Then he placed tealight candles on each corner, and an incense burner off center to make way for his tarot cards.

Viktor’s expression was a familiar mix of curiosity and skepticism like the classmates he’d done readings for. If he weren’t so afraid what his family would think, he’d have gotten more experience with them. 

Striking a match and shielding the flame, Georgi lit the incense, then rummaged through his suitcase for a bag of sachets.

“Do you often pack... everything?” Viktor asked, a hint of his usual snark surfacing from under the cloud that had been ever present for days. It was a welcome improvement.

“I packed with good intentions is all. Would you like me to brew you some tea?” Georgi padded to the coffee pot at the wet bar and set to boiling the water before Viktor could say yes. 

The coffee pot beeped and Georgi poured the water into two mugs over the tea sachets. Chamomile and rose hips for healing, reception, and good luck. The incense would ward off demons, too.

Georgi handed Viktor the steeping mug and knelt opposite him.

“Is this all part of the ritual?”

The interest made Georgi smile, though he fidgeted with the matches in his hands. His offer had been presented in fun, but the truth was he really wanted Viktor to feel some hope whether he was going to believe what the cards said or not. Viktor didn’t sound like he was mocking him at least.“Well, technically it could be done without, but…I think the ambiance invites the proper energies.”

Viktor hummed and set his idea book aside to test the tea. Still too hot. 

One by one the wicks of the candles were lit.

“When you’re ready, will you cut the deck into three piles?” Georgi asked, hand gesturing to the cards.

Viktor picked up the tarot deck and did a quick bridge shuffle before he measured the cards into as best as he could tell equal piles in a neat, horizontal line.

The cards still looked and smelled like new - they were a gift from Viktor, so he’d tried to take care of them. Georgi knew how amateur that made him seem, especially with the card handbook at his side. Viktor hadn’t refused the reading, so that had to mean something. Maybe he recognized the deck? 

Georgi let out a breath and pointed to the stack to his far left. “This stack is your past, the middle is your present, and this last one is your future. Please draw the top card from each.”

Intrigued, Viktor did so, carefully flipping over the top card of the past.

The Sun. Reversed Ten of Swords. Page of Pentacles.

None of them were bad cards on the surface. They were off to an excellent start!

“Oh! The Sun is a very good card. It represents joy, success, and positivity. With it being in your past, hmm...” Georgi sheepishly brought up the handbook to consult it and cleared his throat. “You had a conscious mind of overcoming obstacles of the unconscious through your knowledge. You were a good student and very aware of what was happening around you and the world. The unknown wasn’t an issue for you. Taking one day at a time. That sounds like you.”

Viktor nodded, keeping his eyes on the image on the card - a happy sun with flowers and butterflies in a field below it.

“For your Present you have the Ten of Swords, reversed. Sword cards deal with logic and intellect. You are very smart, Vitya! Tens are, uh, for renewal and completion. Uh, let me see...” Georgi thumbed through the pages for interpretation hints, summoned what he knew from Viktor’s situation from his mind, and relied upon the promptings of the spirits. “Your wounds are still fresh, but you have come, or will, to an understanding that the betrayal that you suffered needed to happen in order for you to move forward. What happened was...” Georgi watched Viktor brace himself with a sharp breath– “inevitable. Right now you should be focused on recovery.”

The fear was evident in Viktor as his gaze moved from the illustrated swords to the future card, a man holding a pentacle star. Someone  _ knew _ what he was going through right now. Georgi  _ knew _ . He wanted to run, but he had nowhere to go.

“Vitya… try the tea,” Georgi suggested.

It took a moment for him to register he was being addressed, but did so. Viktor took a sip, deemed it drinkable and loosened with the effects of the warmth with longer sips.

“May I continue?” Georgi asked, soft and patient; the approach that worked best since they’d been at the hotel.

Viktor nodded.

“And when you are ready… Hmm, Page of Pentacles... that’s-- OH! Oh Viktor, this is wonderful!” Georgi hit his knee on the table in his excitement, his own tea mug spilling over the edge onto the cloth. “This card symbolizes dreams, desires, and new opportunity!”

Viktor was not convinced, lips pulling tight, both hands gripping his mug.

“You have the enthusiasm and energy inside you to make this happen. Once you find this spark to a new life, you will truly be happy.”

“Spark...”

“I know I’m not a very experienced witch, but the cards are meant to be a guide no matter the interpretation. If you’re willing.”

Slowly Viktor returned his mug to the table. “No… I believe in you, but that’s the problem. I’ve r-ruined everything!”

“Oh Viktor... Nothing is ruined. You just went down a temporary, but necessary, painful and difficult path. You’ll get yourself back on the right one. Like the Ten of Swords said.”

“I don’t see how! Gosha… I’ll never feel love again,” he sobbed.

“Never is such a long time, Vitya. I see happiness in your future. See?” He pointed to the cards with a smile.

Viktor considered them for a moment, then rejected the message they told with the closing of his eyes. “Stop… Please, stop.”

Resigned, Georgi gathered the tarot cards and put them back inside their box and into his suitcase, out of sight. “Here, Vitya,” Georgi offered him a handkerchief from the same material the altar cloth was made from.

He took it and cried into it.

Georgi had already accepted they would never have what they had the summer he moved to Saint Petersburg. All the sleepovers and mock dates. When Georgi learned the truth of Viktor’s crush, he wasn’t mature enough and it cost him their friendship. He knew why Viktor had to distance himself. But like Viktor, Georgi also wasn’t a traditional Russian. He trusted Viktor with his secret and he hoped that someday Viktor could trust him with his.

What good was a witch if he couldn’t cast a spell to aid a princess?  



End file.
